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You Too, Can Lift the Rubble in Syria

Published: July 9th

Updated: July 15th

To mention Syria today in front of any group of non-Syrians is to bring a lot of unpleasant associations to the table of discussion. Possibly, on the top of all of them comes ISIS, which overshadowed Assad atrocities although numbers say the opposite. Moreover, you would hear words such as: bloodshed, war, destruction, fanatic groups, Jihadists, ‘it is complicated, no, in fact, it is more than complicated’ and so on so forth.

Consequently and most recently, every report you read in every newspaper or agency publication has the term donor fatigue, another association with the Syrian bloodbath added to the list. However, what lies beneath this term are the bodies of tens and maybe hundreds of thousands of Syrians whose bones will be crashed under the weight of rubber because of the donor’s fatigue, because of the lack of the sanitation and water due to the donor’s fatigue and example are impossible to count. However, several NGOs, originally grassroots initiatives, are heading towards crowd funding as a counter strategy to the lack or gradual withdrawal of funds. They even created a Facebook event to mock the donor’s terms called: This Is What The Donor Wants. Other groups are using crowd funding as a platform to do much more than that. They want to build a global solidarity network of supporters for Syrians’ freedom, and guess what? It is working!

This is What The Donor Wants. A facebook event launched by Syrian activists to mock the conditional support of donors

Everyday everybody of us is being spamed by newsletters of NGOs he/she never subscribed to, UN agencies that don’t stop telling you that: ‘You are the one to save the world’ and other bunch of groups that you subscribed to but totally forgot about their existence. Well, this is not the case with The Syria Campaign Newsletter, because every single letter they send is either a success or a step closer to success. Of course, because they have 65,500 supporter and subscriber worldwide.

On the 6th of June, Raed Saleh, head of the Syria Civil Defence – or the White Helmets as they’re also known sent one important newsletter. the group 2,697 volunteer rescue workers have saved more than 21,967 lives. They face ‘bombs, chemical attacks and sniper fire to reach people caught in the violence and bring them to safety’ . And they are going for a very big crowd funding campaign, they need 100.000 $. It is the Hero Fund.

On the 8th of July, Anna Nolan, one of the Syrian Campaign people wrote another email.

“ 598 people donated an incredible $35,515” in two days

In the morning of the 9th of July the new amount: it is around 45.000 US dollar in less than another day.

This is not only a donation. This is a strong and clear statement. First and foremost for Syrians and the White Helmet staff.

Firstly, it is a political statement:

The International community failed in enforcing any of its principles to protect the civilians of Syria in the past four years. Moreover, the Americans have refused to release lifesaving intelligence that could assist the White Helmets in their mission by anticipating locations of bombardment and consequently save more lives. In addition to the Russia and China complicity in the ongoing crimes by obscuring via their veto several imitative to put an end to Assad’s upper hand in the sky. All of the previous are great reasons to donate to the Hero’s Fund and to send all the previous powers a firm message: We can channel support and we can do what governments are supposed to do, ease people’s sufferings.

Secondly, it is a solidarity statement:

What we have discovered as Syrians is that a rightful cause does not necessarily lead to the acquisition of your rights. It took us more than 200.000 deaths to realize that truth. With the fifth year of our struggle, we are more aware today of the need to build a global Syrian lobby that can help the world see the mutual interest of all parties to stop the bloodshed. This donation is a contribution to this global effort. The White Helmets are not going to stop the barrel bomb, but they will save the lives of many who might be key people in the process of reconciliation and transition, who knows? Maybe the next Syrian white helmet hero is trapped under the rubble now, waiting for someone well equipped to lift him/her up. Donate Now and Tweet your message at

Between 9th and 10th of July, another 7.000 US $ were donated. The total, as per the morning of 10th of July, is 52.000 US $

It is 11th of July midnight, the campaign is still going on, 8 more days. In the last 24 hours, between 10th and 11th of July, another 5000$ were raised and the total contributers mounted from 940 person to 1039.

Between the 11th and the 13th of July, around 11.000$ were raised.

Between the 13th and the evening of 15th of July, around 91% of the goal was reached. 91.000$ are fund raised due to the amazing efforts of 1518 donors from around the globe. Three more days to go.